


Pairs Are Always Together

by YumKiwiDelicious



Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Eurus is lost, Sherri - Freeform, Sherrinford is too good for this world, sherly - Freeform, twinlock
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-18
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-10-30 20:01:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17835230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YumKiwiDelicious/pseuds/YumKiwiDelicious
Summary: “You should be happy, Eurus,” Mycroft said with a forced lightness. “You’re a big sister now.”“There weren't supposed to be two of them,” she insisted petulantly. “Now they’re a pair and pairs are always together.”OREurus doesn't kill Victor, she kills Sherrinford, the third Holmes son and Sherlock's twin brother





	Pairs Are Always Together

16 YEARS AGO

“There's two of them?!”

“Yes, darling, isn't it a blessing?”

The little girl's face made it clear she thought this was anything but a blessing. Mycroft watched his little sister warily as her cheeks flushed a hideous maroon color, her steely eyes narrowed into slits that watered but refused to spill tears. Her hands were balled into tiny fists at her side, her fingernails no doubt digging half moons into her palms. It looked like her whole body was quivering in an attempt to hold in a great wail. She glared up at her father as her teeth audibly began to grind. Mycroft knew after years of watching her moods spiral out from nothing what all these signs meant. Eurus was furious. She was absolutely livid and if not pacified soon she would begin to scream and tantrum right there in the hospital waiting room. 

Mr. Holmes seemed entirely unaware of this as he hurried back to the nurse that had come to deliver the happy news. The man had a spring in his step that his eldest hadn't seen since before his sister came along. And why wouldn't he be happy? He had two new sons. Eurus watched him go, slender shoulders hunched and rigid all the way up by her ears.

Risking what he believed to be life and limb, the ten year old big brother reached out and placed a hand on the girl's arm. Her head snapped around to face him and he very nearly flinched away. He always wanted to flinch away from her. She was frightening; always watching coldly as he socialised with other children and fuming silently at the other end of the dinner table when their parents praised him. At only five she gave off the distinct air of someone who you only touched if you wanted to be harmed. And so he always wanted to flinch away. But he couldn't. Big brothers weren't supposed to be afraid of anything. 

“You should be happy, Eurus,” he said with a forced lightness. “You’re a big sister now.”

“There weren't supposed to be two of them,” she insisted petulantly. “Now they’re a pair and pairs are always together.”

Mycroft didn’t get a chance to question his younger sibling as to why this would be a problem since their father had bustled back over and started ushering them towards their mother’s room. He never thought about it again after he saw Sherlock and Sherrinford for the first time, but Eurus never let it go.

~*~*~

THIS MORNING

“There weren’t supposed to be two of you, you know?”

Sherrinford picked his head up and looked at his sister. Her eyes were focused on the ground ahead of her, looking for steady places to step as they trekked out across the Holmes property. It was still hours until dawn and the crisp chill in the air had the teenage boy hugging himself in a futile attempt to fight it off. When Eurus had woken him in his bed and begged him to accompany her she’d insisted the rush was too great to stop for proper over clothes. They were both in sleep attire as they moved silently further and further away from the house.

“We had no idea mum was going to have twins and when you two came out as a pair I knew I was done for.”

“What do you mean, Eurus?” the boy questioned, tripping over an odd stone as he tried to keep up with her slightly longer strides.

“Pairs are always together,” she sighed, her breath appearing as a cloud before her face briefly then disappearing into nothing. “Shoes, earrings, twins. If you have one without the other they’re useless. The whole point is that they stay together.”

“I don’t understand,” Sherrinford stated plainly, halting all movement when he saw his sister do the same a few strides ahead. They were so far from the house now it could barely be seen through the light fog. The 15 year old glanced back at it over his shoulder wondering if Sherlock would wake and wonder where he was. Eurus had said he could not join them; that only Sherrinford could help her.

“I always wanted a little brother,” the young woman went on, not turning towards her brother but instead looking out further into the darkness, “Or sister. Mycroft never played with me because he said I was too little, but I think he was just afraid of me. I thought a new baby would mean someone I could spend time with. Someone to be my best friend.”

The two Holmes stood in silence for a beat, Sherrinford’s shoulders starting to shake with cold.

“But then you were twins and I knew you’d always be together and never with me,” she finished at last, her voice sending chills down her brother’s spine. “I knew I’d always be alone.”

~*~*~

10 YEARS AGO

“Ready or not, here I come!” Sherlock hopped down from the couch, eyes now uncovered as he spun around on the spot trying to spot his twin. “You can’t hide from me, Sherri!”

The sound of his tiny feet running here and there could be heard throughout the whole first level of the Holmes house and his parents merely spared him a glance as he rushed by not bothering to ask if they’d seen where Sherrinford had hid since that would be cheating. When he’d exhausted all the good hiding spots on the ground floor he bounded up the stairs two at a time calling out warnings for his brother to say his prayers.

“Do quiet down, Sherlock,” Mycroft sighed when the curly haired youth hurried into his room checking under the bed, in the closet, and behind the curtains all before acknowledging his eldest sibling. The 16 year old sat hunched over a pile of dusty textbooks, his head in his hand and a cake slice in his lap. “He’s not in here. He knows I’m studying.”

“Sorry, Mycroft!” Sherlock dropped insincerely as he bolted from the room only to run directly into his sister.

At 11 Eurus, like Mycroft at that age, was unusually tall. She had the same physical features as all the Holmes yet on her the combination of pale skin, dark hair, and crystal eyes was unsettling and Sherlock backed away quickly, muttering a more earnest apology as she smiled down at him. 

“It’s alright, Sherly,” she insisted, using the nickname only Sherrinford was truly allowed to use, “Can I play with you?”

This was a usual question for Eurus though Sherlock was nearly positive there was nothing usual about an 11 year old girl always wanting to play with her six year old brothers. Sherrinford usually agreed happily, inviting her to play the damsel or princess or lady pirate for whatever game they had begun, but Sherlock preferred to play just the two of them. He reasoned having your big sister tagging along on adventures did not sound like something two fierce pirates would do anyway.

“Sorry, Eurus,” he said not unkindly, “But if two of us look for Sherrinford it’s not really fair. Because then it’s like we’re a team, but he has no one to be on his team.”

“Mycroft could be on his team,” the girl suggested, eyes still uncommonly bright.

“No, thank you, Eurus,” Mycroft’s somber voice called out into the hall. Sherlock nearly giggled until he noticed the way his sister’s face darkened, her brows furrowing as her lips disappeared into a thin line of displeasure. He had seen this look on her face before and knew she was only keeping a lid on her welling temper because their father had begun to threaten punishment for every tantrum she threw. The man had told her that she was a young lady and was to behave as such even when her little brothers annoyed her. 

‘That’s what little brothers are supposed to do,’ he had said.

“You two never let me play,” she grumbled in a whisper so low that probably even Mycroft a few feet away could not have heard. “You only ever play with each other.”

“It’s just that three’s a bad number,” the young boy insisted, his own face scrunching at his sister’s inability to see the obvious. Pairs of threes weren’t even a thing. If so it wouldn’t have been called a pair. “Just two is better.”

The preteen looked as if she were ready to shout in Sherlock’s face which she had been known to do in the days before allowance deductions, but instead she merely huffed and brushed by him. She’d never pushed or slapped at any of her brothers, somehow knowing violence was not the answer even though it wafted out of every pore of her lanky body. Sherlock turned and watched her stomp down the hall until she disappeared into her room with a slam of the door. From down below his mother’s voice came reprimanding him for getting too loud while playing his little game.

“It wasn’t me, it was Eurus!” he called back, heading in the opposite direction, now pretty positive that Sherrinford was hiding in their parents bedroom. By the time he found his twin and the two dissolved into a fit of giggles, Sherlock had completely discarded all thoughts of his somber older sister. Down the hall, the sounds of the boys’ laughter still audible through the door, Eurus sat at her desk scribbling furiously over a picture she had drawn of her and her brothers playing together.

~*~*~

“I was always so...lonely watching you two play together,” Eurus all but whispered, now sitting in the damp grass in her nightgown. “I never had a friend to invite to dinner or have a sleepover with and you and Sherlock were born with one.”

Sherrinford’s heart went out to his sister. He recalled their younger years, Eurus always hovering on the edge of happy memories he had made with Sherlock. He had tried his best in those days to include her whenever possible, but she was serious and intense and could sometimes make games less fun by being part of them. Sherlock had told him several times, whispering across the divide of their beds at night, that he found their older sister to be odd. He claimed it was no wonder she did not have any friends of her own because she herself did not know how to be one. Sherrinfod had adamantly denied this, defending Eurus’ proclivity for drama to be merely an aspect of her personality that, as her brothers, they should love and value.

But still as the years had gone on he had stopped inviting her to play as often. Had cut her out of conversations because she would take them to a place too dark and scary to comprehend and begun to also think of her as odd. Sitting beside her then in the pale light of what would barely be dawn, he realized he had done her a great disservice. Reaching out he placed a thin hand on her shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Eurus,” he said sincerely. She had turned and was staring fixedly at his hand as if he had not touched her in years. Perhaps he hadn’t. “I never meant to make you feel that way.”

~*~*~

LAST NIGHT

“WILL YOU LISTEN TO ME?!”

The whole table fell into immediate silence, all eyes turning to the wisp of a woman that sat on the end. 

Mr. and Mrs. Holmes, mouths both open in ‘O’s of surprise, regarded their second child as if they’d never really seen her before. Mycroft let fear flash momentarily across his mind and eyes before it was replaced by mortification as he quickly turned his gaze on his guest. His date, an intelligent young woman he had brought home from school, was frozen with her wine glass halfway to her lips and the ghost of a smile still on her face. Sherlock and Sherrinford, for once, were not mirror images of each other as Sherri wore a sincere mask of concern while Sherly looked extremely put out by his sister’s exclamation.

Eurus sat under all their watchful eyes, utensils still clasped within her sweaty grasp as she tried to blink away tears. The silence was deafening. It was always deafening.

“Sweetheart,” Mrs. Holmes started gently, easing the plate of biscuits she had been passing to Sherrinford back to the table top, “What’s the matter?” Eurus blinked some more.

“All this talking,” she stammered, entire form vibrating with tension, “All this talking and talking, but you never listen. No one in this family ever listens to me.”

“Eurus, darling, I don’t under-”

“No, you never have understood!” she snarled over her father, making the aging man shrink back in his chair. She felt heady with the power of it. “We only ever discuss the brilliant twins and amazing Mycroft! They get all the attention and love and I get NOTHING!”

“Honestly, Eurus, just because Mycroft’s doing better than you at university...” Sherlock punctuated his contempt for the situation with a roll of his eyes that sent his sister’s blood to boiling. Sherrinford quelled him with a look and seemed about to speak when Eurus stood up, shaking the table as she did. Mycroft began whispering apologies to his lady friend, but his little sister was not finished. 

“I am so tired of being in this family where no one sees me,” she whispered, voice carrying in the silence, “It’s like I’m invisible to all of you!”

“You’re being dramatic!”

“Sherlock, please!”

“No, I’ve had enough!” She was crying now, tears finally brushing down her cheeks after all these years, only moving faster as Sherlock scoffed at her. “I hate this family! I HATE ALL OF YOU!”

Mycroft looked beyond humiliated as he too stood. “Eurus, that is enough! I know you’ve always been...jealous of the twins-”

“I have NOT-”

“But you need to grow up!” Her big brother’s plump face was flushed as he ushered his date to stand and to go gather their coats. “You’re twenty-one years old, top of your own class at your own school. It’s time to get your own life!”

~*~*~

NOW

Eurus flinched as the clatter from the previous night mixed with the noise coming from down in the well. It was almost a relief after the stifling silence that came from two decades of loneliness. It had been awful, the things she’d said to her brothers and what they’d said in return, but she couldn’t stand it anymore. Every day since the twins had been born it had felt like there was a gaping cavern within her that only grew wider with each passing year; each fleeting attempt at conversation. 

So she’d screamed and cried and thrown dishes and thoroughly humiliated them all before Sherlock had stood up, all tall and terrible and dressed her down so severely that she’d sworn she’d take a knife to her wrist that not, but she hadn’t. Instead, as she hiccuped and withered while picking up the remnants of their dinner, she listened as Sherrinford tried to comfort her. Given her soft platitudes about how good a sister she had always been while insisting on helping her clean up the mess she had made of their lives.

She’d watched his form behind the curtain of her pin straight hair, never adding to the conversation as he righted chairs and dabbed wine stains. He was the better of him and Sherlock, there was no doubt about that, but if anything that was what damned him in the end. He was too soft, too pure, too good for this world. He wouldn’t make it without Sherlock and so he was not the one to keep.

“EURUS!”

The echoing scream shook her from her thoughts and she gasped in her spot kneeling by the well. With a shake of her head she looked down into it and spotted her baby brother, bobbing around down there. He hadn’t even put up a fight, so sweet was he at his core. His face and arms were scratched and bruised from where Eurus had thrown herself at him, clawing and biting and beating him until finally dragging his skinny form to the edge and tossing him over. She’d heard him bump and scrape on the way down, definitely breaking at least two bones between hitting the black water below. His breath was coming in tiny puffs of steam now, too quick to be good for him.

“Eurus, p-please get me out of here!”

She blinked down on him numbly before looking down at her hands. There was dirt and some of Sherri’s blood under her nails which she began to pick clean with trembling fingers. Sherrinford was crying lowly, the sound cut up by gurglings of bubbles every few moments. Not a strong swimmer this one.

“I can’t have you running back to mummy,” she called at last, her shadow falling into the well. A sweeping calm was falling over her out there in the mist and as she moved to stand, she held that feeling close to her chest even as Sherrinford started to panic and beg.

“No, no, Eurus, don’t!” he yelled as she stepped away, taking her shadow with her. “Eurus, come back! Come back!”

He would freeze to death by morning she reasoned. Or drown. Either way by the time everyone else realized he was missing and not just away, and searched the grounds and found the well it’d be too late. She would be down to two brothers and then she’d have Sherlock, hateful bastard that he was, all to herself. She felt her first sincere smile in ages start to slide over her face as she drifted back towards the house, Sherrinford’s screams growing fainter with every step.

“EURUS, DON’T! DON’T! COME BACK! EURUS!"

**Author's Note:**

> h t t p : //yumkiwidelicious.tumblr. com/ post/ 156112633688/ ok-but-like
> 
> remove the spaces and this is the post I made when I had this idea foreeeever ago when these episodes aired.  
> I imagine Sherrinford being portrayed by Ben Whishaw and young Eurus being played by Victoria Pedretti


End file.
